Monday, June 20, 2016 is the summer solstice, the day on the calendar with the most daylight for those in the Northern Hemisphere.

​June 20, 2016 - Check-in BFF Updates:

Julie Wenah (EDA): Will not be in the call today, but provided the update below by email. Julie will return to her office on June 29, 2016.

Marshaun Williams, Intern at EDA; now called a BFF.

1. Regional Studies Association Conference - A sincere thanks to Leigh Hopkins who organized a great panel discussion at the conference last week in Atlanta, GA. Tech highlight was IMCP as an example of Regional Collaboration. Also, a sincere thanks to the IMCP communities that participated - Erin K., Debbie F., and Deepak B. It was a great panel and strong representation for the IMCPs.2. IMCP Summit - We will begin to ask folks to feel free to serve on the committee for this year's Summit. If you are interested, please send Marshaun an email. We will meet next week via phone. MWilliams1@eda.gov - I have already received an email from Irene - thanks Irene!3. Programming - We are aiming to host a Webinar in July covering one of the IMCP Pillars. If your community is interested in taking lead on highlighting a particular area, please let Marshaun and I know. Dr. Saygin, we would love to hear more on Cybersecurity as it relates to manufacturing. This will be a novel topic for discussion. Marshaun: The programming will be circuluated throughout the entire federal government. Would like to begin workign on this in early August 2016.4. IMCP Manufacturing Tour Photos - If we have travelled to your community this year or last, please send over any photos you have to Marshaun at MWilliams1@eda.gov . We are revamping the website and need your help in doing this. Further, we will be including cross-links on our page to connect to your individual IMCP communities, so it would be great to send Marshaun both photos and links for your IMCP community. Sarah, it would also be great to link the IMCP Manufacturing Blog - this can be the overarching link and then have links for the communities below.5. IMCP Report - We are looking to build a 2 year report on the IMCP communities. We will be asking for data, anecdotal stories, as well as a one-pager for your community. Please keep this in mind, we will send a template out late next week with the thought to received your one-pagers by late July. Sara Lee - wants a copy as well. Charlie: When template goes around, need good examples. Sara Lee: This will be more than a report. This is an opportunity to make the IMCP shine.6. Updated IMCP community contacts: Marshaun will be reaching out to your communities to get the most up to date information regarding your IMCP Community points of contact - many of you have experienced changes in the last several months. Please be responsive in sending over the names and emails for your community POCs.7. From now on, please ensure you loop Marshaun in your correspondences to me so that we can ensure we are on top of getting you what you need.

Charlie Bartsch (EPA):

Marshaun and Julie had the updates. Area-wide planning grants - reach out to him. A lot of the IMCP states are at USA Select and are clearly aware of what’s going on. There are over 4,000 people at the USA Select. It is a good show - thus far.Area-wide Planning grants are $200,000 - allow communities to focus on areas to attract new investment: Industrial legacy sites. Can be used for: environmental issues, market studies, manufacturing activities communities are wanting to pursue.Q1: What agency? EPA. Can work nicely with the other agency efforts.Q2: Can an organization apply for a second or complimentary. Find another partner in the area to apply as there must be some potential to manufacturing.

Dileep Thatte NIST MEP:

Brian Parker (EDA): No new updates.

RIS’s are due on Friday, June 24, 2016 at midnight.Q: Can IMCPs provide more than one letter of endorsement? Yes

Other BFF’s on the call?

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Agenda:

Partnership Opportunities: Programs that can go national for IMCP can be incredibly powerful. Two groups are applying for Robotics. The question is - how can we support each other? Letters of support by adding your signature that went out last week. Will have two different letters: add a signature to indicate an IMCP does want an Robotics. SLee will send the information out one more time. Please respond.

NNMI

Southwest Alabama IMCP - National Science Foundation INCLUDES proposal due on June 24, 2016. Regions are encouraged to submit a letter of support to Kathy Thompson at kathythompson@southalabama.edu by Wednesday, June 22.

Workforce

i6/RIS - Erin with Tennessee will submit an i6 and welcome a letter of support from other IMCPs.

International Trade Administration (ITA) - there are opportunities for IMCPs to align with ITA.

Sara will send out opportunities to support each other.

ITA

Programming Conference Call:

Legislative Update: Dave or Petra. David talked with John Cardinal with some specific requests. The legislation is moving quickly to complete before the August 2016 congressional break.

Please note: we are no longer doing a round robin check in -- instead, we will focus on collaborative issues and projects. So -- we really truly need each region to take a moment or two to write a few sentences about what you are doing! (Please fill in what you can -- doesn’t have to be earth shattering!)

Rural Sourcing Inc. (RSI) located in Mobile, Alabama is a leading provider of U.S.-based IT outsourcing services, was selected by IDG's Computerworld as a 2016 Best Places to Work in IT. The list is compiled based on a comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings in categories such as benefits, career development, training and retention. In addition, Computerworld conducts extensive surveys of IT workers, and their responses factor heavily in determining the rankings.

Today is the first day of classes for one of our three Managed Career Pipeline Pilot Programs. The program will be piloting partnerships between regional community colleges and workforce investment boards for workforce development and advancement.

Hosting the June 30 - AMP SoCal Innovation Forum Series event, Technology Transfer for Small Business will showcase technology developed at 4-5 universities and one national lab. A few will offer an express license program which allows for rapid licensing. (more information)

August 4 - Holding our 1st Bi-Annual AMP SoCal Conference at the California Science Center, home of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Our first panel of the day will cover trends in Defense procurement and the last panel will have procurement officers from OEMs and Tier One Suppliers. (more information)

What’s up? Portland is hosting Maine Start-Up and Create Week on June 20-26 at the Maine College of Art. Last year’s event featured 162 panelists and 4,100 participants. Once again this year, several workshops feature IMCP partners and our catalyst projects. An evening event, the Maine Food Show, features tastes from the area’s newest food entrepreneurs: http://www.mainestartupandcreateweek.com/

Fork Food Lab, one of our catalyst projects, is in the middle of a monthlong Kickstarter campaign to raise $30,000 for the Tasting Room. For $10,000, you can have the entire tasting room named after your business or organization. In just one week, they have already surpassed the halfway point. Last week, they won two awards for economic development: a ReCOGnition Award from the Greater Portland Council of Governments and the other, an Entreverge award from the Portland Chamber of Commerce. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/48135351/tasting-room-at-fork-food-lab-learn-cook-and-eat

This week, we are hosting a retirement party for Neal Allen, Executive Director at the Greater Portland Council of Governments, the lead IMCP partner. The event will be hosted at one of GPCOG’s Brownfields sites - Thompson’s Point, a railyard turned event center, featuring craft beer, wine and food from Maine’s food truck community.

Julie - thank International Trade Administration (ITA) for providing assistance under the trade and investment pillar.

Deputy Assistant Secretary was formerly with SBA and participated in the development of the IMCP .

Antwaun Griffin, Deputy Assistant Secretary for ITA: Commercial Service - offices in more than 100 cities. We help increase exports and investment. Working to better connect communities with the global economy. Identifying potential partners abroad. Overseas resources. Building linkages - business to business/government to government assistance. Assistance with international connections, foreign direct investment.

Data rich - ability to provide market information that can help the IMCP communities. Facilitate connections with research institutions and partners abroad.

Irene - working with Brookings on developing an FDI strategy. In-bound information? Go to Select USA website for more information. Hosting ‘road shows’ in foreign markets

BFF Updates:

Julie Wenah (EDA): Update on programming - is working on highlighting work that the individual communities are doing under the six pillars - considering putting together a webinar on the particular pillars. Revamping the website. Looking to issue a report on the IMCP by mid-September. Julie is hoping to get a success story

Report language is in place

Introduction of new EDA member - Marshaun - 2nd year law student

Charlie Bartsch (EPA):

ANNOUNCING New Request for Proposals- FY 2017 Brownfields Area-Wide Planning (BF AWP) Grant GuidelinesEPA is announcing the availability of funding to eligible entities who wish to develop an area-wide plan for brownfields assessment, cleanup, and subsequent reuse. This funding is for research and/or technical assistance activities directed to one or more brownfield site(s) located in a specific area (such as a neighborhood, downtown or business district, local commercial corridor, community waterfront or city blocks). Each project funded under this grant must result in an area-wide plan which includes specific plan implementation strategies for assessing, cleaning up, and reusing the brownfields site(s) as well as related brownfields and project area revitalization strategies. EPA anticipates awarding approximately 20 projects in total, funded at up to $200,000 each. The proposal submission deadline is August 10, 2016.

Outreach Webinar: EPA will walk through the guidelines for competitive proposals with prospective applicants. There will be an opportunity for questions. Webinar will be held June 16, 2016 from 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm EDT. Registration is not necessary; access the webinar here: http://epawebconferencing.acms.com/fy17bf_awp/ and call in 1-866-299-3188; code 202 566 0633#.

Select USA in D.C, (June) - June 19-21, 2016 To register, please visit this link. Read and download the agenda here. What do the IMCP communities need to do to have a significant presence in D.C. at this important event?

Private funding/Finance update: Charlie/Sarah -

NNMI Coordination:

Cluster Discussions:

Composites?

Food?

Aerospace?

Questions/Comments from the Gallery:

Please note: we are no longer doing a round robin check in -- instead, we will focus on collaborative issues and projects. So -- we really truly need each region to take a moment or two to write a few sentences about what you are doing! (Please fill in what you can -- doesn’t have to be earth shattering!)

June 9, 2016, the Advancing Southwest Alabama kicked off its efforts to become the first regional ACT Work Ready Community in the state today. It is one of several high-profile outcomes resulting from the Southwest Alabama manufacturing community designation.A typical Work Ready Community is established on a county-by-county basis and requires two key measures: the work readiness of individuals, including graduating high school students, current workforce and the unemployed, as measured by the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC); and the number of companies recognizing NCRCs as a valid measure of work readiness in potential and current employees.The Mobile Area Chamber is one of several partners collaborating on this and other workforce development initiatives. http://mobilechamber.com/incredible-recruitment-tool-for-the-region-to-launch-this-month/

June 30 - Innovation Forum Series event, Technology Transfer for Small Business will showcase technology developed at 4-5 universities and one national lab. A few will offer an express license program which allows for rapid licensing. (more information)

August 4 - Holding our 1st Bi-Annual AMP SoCal Conference at the California Science Center, home of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Our first panel of the day will cover trends in Defense procurement and the last panel will have procurement officers from OEMs and Tier One Suppliers. (more information)

Transloading facility development meeting June 21st - The region’s railroads, OTR freight companies, and our manufacturing cluster partners are discussing the development of a trans-loading facility to serve as a pilot project for the region.

Planning is also underway for the proposed EDA/Agency leadership visit to the wilds of Southern Idaho in September. In case you want to come out -- Things to do in Southern Idaho: and we have one for summer too.

Julie Wenah (EDA): Thank you everyone who has hosted us in their IMCP community since the beginning of the year. May was very busy as we are celebrating the two-year anniversary of the first IMCP communities. Last weekend we made the local news in Connecticut as well. Redesignation is going through a thorough review and we are setting a benchmark to be used for each community. Due to the length of this process all round-one communities’ designations are extended through July 31, 2016. Next week we’ll have a representative from ITA joining us.

Charlie Bartsch (EPA): Our area-wide planning grant has not yet been announced but will be available soon. I’ll make sure you receive word as soon as it’s available.

Dileep Thatte NIST MEP): Visiting SouthEast Michigan on Friday, June 10. Wants to thank Julie Wenah and Charlie Bartsch in helping him prepare for the visit.

IMCP Manufacturing Tour – Please identify proposed dates for a visit to your community (including more than one is very helpful). The purpose of this tour is to travel into manufacturing communities across the country to heighten the awareness of U.S. manufacturing and hear firsthand from the communities regarding issues they are facing as it relates to industry, workforce and other factors.

Next Steps - There will be another opportunity in 6 months so we will be searching for a CDFI to partner with as our applicant.

Will let you know when there is more information on the training in finance that is being developed for us by the private financing group.

NSF INCLUDES application being submitted by IMCP partnership -- how can the rest of us help support?

The Partnership:

Southwest Alabama IMCP

NW Georgia IMCP

Memphis Tennessee IMCP

Tennessee Valley (Nashville)IMCP

Louisiana IMCP

12 - 14-year-old girls are targeted to encourage them to pursue math that will lead them to a professional STEM career. First pilot in Mobile Alabama and then scaled to other partner communities. If successful, we’ll be invited to compete to receive additional funding to scale up across the 24 IMCP communities. Kathy will send her pre-proposal and support letter information to Sarah who will forward it to everyone.

NNMI - Automation and Robotics - there are two competing proposals with IMCP involvement. One is led by EWI (Alamo Manufacturing Partnership) and the other is led by Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburg and Southern California). Both would like to show support from the IMCP community. A request will be coordinated and submitted for support next Monday.

Update from Jon Cardinal as of this morning (6/6/16): “We are aiming to include in the COMPETES Reauthorization when the Senate Commerce Committee takes up the bill (could be very soon). Senators Moran and Blumenthal have sent a letter to Commerce Committee Chairman Thune and Ranking Member Nelson making the case for its inclusion and will offer it as an amendment in the mark up if it’s not in the base text, which is unlikely. We could use help in getting all Commerce Committee members with current IMCP designations to support this effort. This includes Johnson (R-WI), Peters (D-MI), Klobuchar (D-MN), and Cantwell (D-WA).” He also notes that it would be helpful to reach out to Cruz (R-TX), who is on the committee, to encourage his support, or at least to not actively oppose the amendment.

We could use help in getting all Commerce Committee members with current IMCP designations to support this effort. This includes Johnson (R-WI), Peters (D-MI), Klobuchar (D-MN), and Cantwell (D-WA).

Jon Cardinal has talking points that can be shared with your individual member of Congress. Just contact Jon for more information.

Outreach requests - David - still moving along in the process. Hoping for additional endorsements on the Senate side. There is a listing on Congress.gov that will show who has signed on to the legislation.

Mapping linkages with NNMI, MEP, and National Laboratories - Dileep ThatteSasha Anderson - Puget Sound has been working on the map. MEPs, NNMI, and the ICMP communities are identified and highlight-able for more information. http://www.manufacturingcommunities.org/partner-map.html

Select USA in D.C, (June) - June 19-21, 2016 To register, please visit this link. Read and download the agenda here. What do the IMCP communities need to do to have a significant presence in D.C. at this important event?

With the House Appropriations Committee approving the FY 2017 Commerce-Justice-Science Spending Bill -- EDA’s budget is projected for $264.5 million. In the House version, however, Regional Innovation Strategies is zeroed out. The Senate request mirrors the President’s $20 million for this programmatic area. What is the outlook for the final budget and how might that impact the applications that are due to EDA-OIE by June 24th?

Not necessarily questions, but the folks that were able to gather in D.C. last week came up with the following: YOUR INPUT IS CRITICAL TO MOVING FORWARD!!! Feel free to add your ideas, thoughts, comments…. Just click on the field you would like to edit. If you would like to add a new line -- Just click on the ‘insert row’ tab under table tools above and away you go....

This could also help Julie with the structure of the programming conference calls/webinars by helping to identify the federal agency partners that can help with implementation. Specific projects will also help the agency folks address our needs versus talk about generalities.

Champions needed! On-going business

NNMI Coordination - Dion is setting up the series of conference calls for interested parties. Dion has these now moving forward. Dileep has provided the first speaker. Should have more information for next week’s call June - Wednesday or Thursday (likely the 3rd week)

Advanced Composites Workforce - Greg (Utah)

Aerospace - Kathy Thompson (J.Dewey-San Antonio (Alamo Manufacturing Partnership) wants to be included in this group, but is unable to lead.)

Private Funding - Sarah - Charlie -

Food - California - Karmjot Grewal -

Manufacturing Community Blog - Sarah is looking for updates that can be posted to the blog. Press releases?

Please note: we are no longer doing a round robin check in -- instead, we will focus on collaborative issues and projects. So -- we really truly need each region to take a moment or two to write a few sentences about what you are doing! (Please fill in what you can -- doesn’t have to be earth shattering!)

Advancing Southwest Alabama/Southwest AL IMCP will host a meeting with April Springfield, Delta Regional Authority (DRA) on Monday, June 6, 2016. Ms. Springfield is the new DRA representative for Alabama.

Advancing Southwest Alabama/Southwest AL IMCP will conduct two (2) public launches for the ACT Work Ready Communities, a regional effort between the eight counties of Southwest Alabama, on June 9 and June 15, 2016.

Exhibited at the Space Tech Expo in Pasadena May 24 – 26, America’s meeting place for space technology and engineering to connect with A&D manufacturers.

Approximately 150 people stopped by the AMP SoCal booth with multiple follow-up contacts made.

Innovation Forum Series event, Technology Transfer for Small Business will showcase technology developed at 4-5 universities and one national lab. A few will offer an express license program which allows for rapid licensing.

Holding our 1st Bi-Annual AMP SoCal Conference August 4th at the California Science Center, home of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Our first panel of the day will cover trends in Defense procurement and the last panel will have procurement officers from OEMs and Tier One Suppliers.

What’s up? We were not selected for Phase II of the NIST NNMI Open Topic competition. The Greater Portland region did earn two Brownfields awards: $800,000 RLF to the City of Portland and $400,000 Assessment to GPCOG.

For the first time in three decades, the number of manufacturing jobs in Greater Portland HAS INCREASED! We are up 350 manufacturing jobs from 2014. Food manufacturing, our IMCP focus area, is a significant part of that increase.

Kresge Foundation RFP Update: I’m sorry to say that we have learned we did not get invited to submit an application by the Kresge Foundation for the Composite Recycling Technology Center. We were hoping the proposal would spark Kresge’s interest, since we were hoping to replicate the center and spread the use of this technology nationwide. We are so disappointed! However, this was an important exercise for us, and we learned a lot. We also had a lot of fantastic help and support – from Tim Larson (Ross Strategic), Toby Rittner (CDFA) and Charlie Bartsh (BFF from US EPA) – and from our fabulous IMCP partners around the country – Utah, Connecticut, California, Kansas, Alabama, South Central Idaho and Tennessee.All this support and the promise of partnerships across state boundaries is what makes the IMCP program especially powerful.And that’s why I think it’s important to look at this Kresge opportunity as just the first in a series of very strategic IMCP partnerships. (Of course, I vote for all these future partnerships to get funding!)So, again thank you, and we look forward to working with you on the next steps going forward.

March 2016 - Live Greater Peoria is our new program designed to support local employers in their talent recruitment efforts. A website, LiveGP.org, offers a wonderful glimpse of the lifestyle we often take for granted here in Greater Peoria. Printed materials and swag bags paired with newcomer orientations and a "first friend" will offer an additional, personal touch we hope will persuade even the toughest hold-out.

May 2016 - Launch of Make Yourself GP website and monthly newsletter to help create a talent pipeline for Greater Peoria. Make Yourself website www.makeyourselfgp.org is a central hud of Make Yourself GP and a resource in support of students, chiledren and and the future workforce. The monthly update is focused on sharing all the amazing career-development work that is happening in Greater Peoria.

The Greater Peoria Economic Development Council is pleased to announce Mark Hanback as the new Director of the Greater Peoria Manufacturing Network. Hanback joins us as the recently retired Executive Director of the Cat Production System at Caterpillar. Mark has more than 38 years of experience in Accounting, Operations, Product Management and General Management positions. “I have spent over 20 years working with the talented suppliers in the Greater Peoria area,” says Hanback. “Based on their quality and delivery expertise and openness for improvement I am confident we can expand our network and grow the customer base. I look forward to facilitating our collective growth.”